McDonald's to Post Sixth Quarterly Decline, Concedes Service Woes

Oak Brook, Illinois--Officials of McDonald's Corp., which is expected to post its sixth straight decrease in quarterly profits later this month, admitted to customer service problems at more than half of the company's 13,000 U.S. restaurants. The company said that more than half of its restaurants can improve their levels of quality, service and cleanliness, based on 22,000 mystery shopping visits conducted earlier this year as part of the chain's major push to upgrade operations.

Looking to increase speed of service, McDonald's will spend more than $20 million in the first quarter to give its U.S. franchisees $2,000 per restaurant to cover some of the equipment costs for installing "team service" at the front counter. That time-saving measure has one employee taking an order while another employee fulfills it. -Nation's Restaurant News